Epic Soundtracks

It’s easy to forget how essential soundtracks are. With so much focus on acting, special effects and plot lines, sometimes we fail to appreciate how music can make or break a film, a TV series, and even a video game. The emotional impact of any one scene can be heightened or lessened by the songs.

Take this moment from the latter part of the Arthur Morgan story arc in Red Dead Redemption 2. Granted, if you don’t know the story and the character, it may not be as impactful. But within the context of the tale, when the first few notes of Daniel Lanois’ “That’s the Way It Is” begin playing as Arthur saddles up for his last ride, the heart of everyone who is invested in the character gets ripped from their chest.

Or, in some cases, like in this hilarious clip about the preparations for the duel between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon (1972), substituting the original music can change the energy of a scene just a tad…

When I think of my favorite soundtracks, quite a few come to mind. Some are amazing but I don’t think of them as ‘soundtracks’ in a classic sense, since they use already existing songs. The incredible collection of songs from Cadillac Records is a good example of that. Here’s one of them:

Same goes for soundtracks where the music is the very reason for the movie. Purple Rain (1984), for example.

Ok then… what’s left?

Of course, there’s Ennio Morricone. His scores are so iconic that even most people who have never watched the movies associated with them can recognize the compositions. Songs like “Alla Serenità” and the main theme from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly are masterpieces. And the song I’ve used since the early days of History on Fire, “The Ecstasy of Gold”, is powerful beyond words.

Here’s my lady, Sovannahry Em, in 2018 walking out to the cage for her debut fighting for One Championship to the tune of “The Ecstasy of Gold.”

When it comes not just to single songs but full scores, let’s start with the unbelievable job done by Trevor Jones for The Last of the Mohicans (1992). In my very personal opinion, this is easily one of the greatest soundtracks in the history of cinema. I remember listening to it on long road trips with my mother across the Midwest when I was in my early 20s. And now, whenever I drive with my lady and with my daughter from California to the Black Hills, it remains my favorite music to accompany us on the long journey. Unfailingly, as soon as the soundtrack begins, we fall silent. Not a word is said as we take in the vastness of the horizon and the beauty of the scenery.

What Howard Shore has done for both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy is nothing short of genius. In song after song across six films, he raises the emotional temperature and gives an epic quality to it all.

And then there’s the one to which I’m most emotionally attached. I first watched Conan the Barbarian back when it came out in 1982 (I was eight years old and had to violate Italian law to see it, but that’s a different story…) Conan is a perfect example of a film that is ‘made’ by the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong… Milius’ writing is top-notch, and perhaps it would have been enough to sell me on the movie, but Basil Poledouris’ score is so powerful and timeless that I could listen to it for every day of my life and never get tired of it. Just today, I went to pick up my daughter at school while listening to the Conan soundtrack. My daughter was in an awful mood, but the second she sat in the car and heard the first notes, the dark clouds left her while memories of the zillion times we listened together to the music flooded her consciousness.

These are my choices. What are the soundtracks that speak to your soul?